My Moomba just started smoking???

[terryleonard2000]

Had our 2000 Moomba V-drive at the lake for the past 18 days. She ran great till the last two days of the trip. Noticed the oil pressure was fluctuating badly, nearly bottom of the quage when idleing and only gets to about 50psi at 3500rpms... normal idle is 40 psi and 70-75psi at 3500rpm??

also noticed she is smoking lightly from the drivers side..any suggestions or ideas would be greatly appreciated.

[Grant M]

Sounds like a head gasket..

[terryleonard2000]

My abilities as a mechanic are limited...is this a task i could handle? What about the oil sending unit as the problem?

[mmandley]

My abilities as a mechanic are limited...is this a task i could handle? What about the oil sending unit as the problem?

Oil sending unit is easy enough to test and replace to fix your fluctuation gauge.

The real problem here is smocking on 1 bank of the engine. Most likely you blew a head gasket and it's leaking oil or water into the cylinder. White smock is water grey to black is oil.

Check you oil level to see if your losing oil. Burning oil can make the gauge fluctuate as well. You have a leak so the pressure will drop.

As for can you fix this yourself? Yes but it's an involved job. Easy fix is remove valve covers 6 or 8 bolts then remove the head 8 to 12 bolts. Replace the head gasket replace the head retorque the bolts reinstall valve cover.

Proper way to fix this is called an upper half rebuild. Remove both heads. Both get decked and valve jobs. Replace all the springs and valves is worn. Deck the engine block.

Now you will have a like new engine.

The simple way above only buys you a season or two and the problem will return as you only fixed the effect of a problem not the cause

[bergermaister]

Terry - I'd suggest pulling spark plugs one by one on the driver side bank and see which one(s) look most oiled up and dirty. If you do pull the head you'll know where to focus your inspection to make sure you don't have any other problems with the head or block or scarring on the cylinder walls from piston rings going bad.

If the spark plugs aren't telling you anything you could also do a compression test prior to pulling the head to see which cylinder is weak/leaking. These can be rented or borrowed from most auto parts stores. It may end up being a bad valve seal or seat.

Hopefully its just a head gasket and you won't need any machine work.

[terryleonard2000]

thanks to you both for your insight and suggestions. I was truly hoping to get throught the rest of this boating season but I guess I am gonna try a top down tear down...

[DOCDRS]

Take some pics and keep us updated if you can

[rc5695]

as another 2000 model v-drive owner, could you please tell me how many hours are on your boat? thanks!

[bbuhtz]

as another 2000 model v-drive owner, could you please tell me how many hours are on your boat? thanks!

I'm curious as well...